THEY WENT ON TOGETHER

A few years ago Nathan wrote a memorable book, Road of Ages, which failed to click. Perhaps it was written too soon. Now comes They Went Together, again a story of a pilgrimage, against a segment of the tragedy of defeat. But -- though one suddenly realizes, as the story gathers momentum, that he is projecting himself into a future, unimaginable to most of us, of America in flight from burning homes, ones imagination has a picture of other nations in retreat, of refugee checked roads providing fodder for enemy bombers. This is no deliberate horror story; it has singularly sparse detail. In its very paucity of fact lies its innate power. The story of a little family, the mother a poor widow, the boy the realest character of them all, the little girl to whom her doll is foil for her reactions to all that happens -- and of their footless march, towards a shadowy goal -- and of the lost girl who joined them and stole potatoes for them -- and of the adolescent love that linked the boy and girl. A strange eerie tale that cuts below the surface. It wont be popular, but I think people will talk about it and people will read it in spite of themselves.